A WOMEN’S institute in Evesham is set to fold after more than half a century of service to the community.

Hampton Women’s Institute has announced plans to close amid dwindling interest, particularly for the essential role of president.

Anyone agreeing to serve as either a committee member or as an officer – president, treasurer or secretary – needs to commit for 12 months and after “limping along for several years” with the same hardy souls, former president Joyce Davey knew the end was nigh.

“It is quite upsetting for all of the members,” said Mrs Davey.

“We have been unable to find someone to be president to continue. With no president, there is no WI. The rules say you cannot continue without one.

“I think it is fair to say most of the ladies are of a certain age and have either been president or on the committee and don’t want to do it anymore.

“We have limped along for several years with presidents coming in and saying they will do just the one year. The last one did three years and so did the one before that, prior to that they did 13-14 years.

“It has reached the stage where the people we have been reliant on cannot do it anymore, they have other things in their lives.

“Many of them have been there since the early 70s, many of them are very sad about it but there was little we could do.

“Hampton has been running on a committee of four for about five years, it has been difficult to get people to do committee work and even though we have all the new housing in the area, one person has volunteered from something we put out through the Facebook page a couple of weeks ago.”

Formed in 1915, the Women's Institute was originally brought to life to revitalise rural communities and encourage women to become more involved in producing food during World War I.

Since then the organisation's aims have broadened and the WI is now the largest voluntary women's organisation in the UK.